Larry Ellison has become the world’s richest person, overtaking Elon Musk, after Oracle shares soared by over a third on Wednesday, Bloomberg‘s Billionaire Index showed.
The boom in artificial intelligence meant Ellison’s stake in Oracle hit more than $388bn on Wednesday morning. Musk’s net worth is around $384bn.
Why It Matters
The sudden shift in Ellison’s fortune marks the biggest one-day increase ever recorded, per Bloomberg. Musk had held the title of world’s richest person for much of the past four years, having first secured the position in 2021.
Larry Ellison Named ‘World’s Richest Person’: What We Know
Following Oracle’s strong earnings report released Tuesday, Ellison’s wealth jumped $101 billion to $393 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The 81-year-old is the largest individual shareholder at Oracle, which is seeing a sharp rise in its revenue as a key provider of the infrastructure powering the world’s AI boom. Over the year so far, Oracle’s stock has risen 103 percent.
Ellison co-founded the company now known as Oracle in 1977 and worked as its Chief Executive Officer from then through 2014. He still holds senior roles within the company.
Oracle is most known for its database software and cloud infrastructure, which in recent years has seen more demand from AI start-ups. On Tuesday, the company reported $332 billion in bookings in its first quarter.
What is Elon Musk’s Net Worth?
Ellison takes the title from Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, whose current net worth sits at around $385 billion.
Musk was first noted as the world’s richest person in 2021, with the title briefly going to two others in the years since—LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Musk’s companies have seen some turbulence since January, in part linked to his role within the Trump administration—namely, leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) until May.
What People Are Saying
Oracle CEO, Safra Catz, in a press release on Tuesday: “We signed four multi-billion-dollar contracts with three different customers in Q1. This resulted in RPO contract backlog increasing 359% to $455 billion. It was an astonishing quarter—and demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure continues to build. Over the next few months, we expect to sign-up several additional multi-billion-dollar customers and RPO is likely to exceed half-a-trillion dollars.”
What’s Next
Musk could potentially retake the title from Ellison, due to a new pay deal with Tesla that would see him paid billions more in stock if the company meets certain targets. Tesla shareholders will vote on the proposed compensation package during the company’s annual meeting on November 6.
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